The present invention relates to the field of agricultural machinery. More specifically, the present invention relates to a removable feed table for feeding agricultural material, such as silage, into a bagging machine.
A bagging machine can be used to store any of a variety of agricultural materials, such as silage, in large bags. The bags are often made of plastic that is designed to preserve the stored material. The bags can be several feet in diameter and several hundred feet long. For example, a commonly used bag has a 12 foot diameter and is 500 feet long.
A bagging machine is usually self-propelled, with a feed table extending from the front end and a bag dispenser extending from the back end. When agricultural material is dumped on the feed table, the feed table conveys the material to a rotor inside the bagging machine. The rotor propels the material through the bagging machine and the bag dispenser. The bag dispenser holds the mouth of the bag open to collect the stream of material in the bag. When a bag is first being filled, the majority of the length of the bag is stored within the bag dispenser. But, as the material accumulates in the bag, the bagging machine moves forward and the dispenser dispenses more of the bag so that the bag is laid out on its side.
Vast quantities of agricultural material can be stored in bags using this process. The material is usually dumped onto the feed table from a truck. Unfortunately, the feed table can be a bottle neck in the bagging process. If the feed table only holds a small fraction of a truck load of material, a truck can only dump a relatively small amount at a time, requiring the truck to gradually move forward as the bagging machine moves forward and fills the bag. Also, if the feed table only holds enough material to feed the bagging machine for a short period of time, there may not be enough time to switch an empty truck for a loaded truck while sustaining continuous bagging. In other words, the bagging machine may have to stop between trucks loads.
Unfortunately, the size and length of a feed table on a bagging machine is often limited by practical considerations. For instance, in order to move the bagging machine from one bagging site to another, the bagging machine is likely to travel over public roads. In which case, a long, protruding feed table can be cumbersome and even dangerous.